The New York Times ad campaign: The Truth Is Hard

At the 2016 Oscars, The New York Times aired its first-ever television commercial. The typographic spot features nothing but black text on a white background, sentences that start with “The truth is…”. It references the state of politics in mass media, a battlefield where US President Donald Trump has lunched multiple attacks specifically aimed at the Times.

NYT Franklin stands straight on the empty background, a symbol of a broken and battered American dream. Almost spindly in appearance, it takes the strong character of NYT Karnak to save us from an impending populist doom.